1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to belt or strap buckles and more particularly to a quick connect and release buckle.
This buckle has particular application in industry where an industrial stilt leg stabilizing tube is secured to the leg of the user by a fabric strap. This buckle permits ease of adjusting the belt tension and will not become unbuckled as a result of looseness of the strap around the user's leg.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a conventional belt buckle a metallic loop is fastened to one end of the belt to slidably receive the other end portion of the belt when threaded therethrough. The belt is secured by a tongue or catch, supported by the loop, entering one of a plurality of longitudinally spaced holes in the belt. Such a buckle has the disadvantage of the necessity of threading the apertured end portion of the belt through the buckle and a further disadvantage that the hole spacing is usually not such that a desired tension of a belt, about the user's leg, for fastening an industrial stilt can be achieved. Further, such belt buckles are not quickly and easily disconnected for removing the stilts and some times when loose become unbuckled unless the free end of the belt is secured.
Prior patents generally disclose other type of belt or strap buckles, such as those presently used with safety seat belts. While these buckles perform a function similar to the present invention they have the disadvantage of comprising a plurality of parts and thus are not economically attractive in many industrial applications.
The most pertinent prior patent is believed to be U.S. Pat. No. 3,372,440 which discloses confronting sections of a safety belt buckle in which opposing end portions of a belt are adapted to be looped through the respective section in overlapping relation to achieve belt tightness or adjustment thereof. One of the sections is formed by superposed planar parts in which one end portion of the two parts are arcuately curved toward each other to provide a cavity therebetween. The other section is similarly formed from two planar parts transversely hingedly connected in superposed relation with the uppermost part having a recess or trough therein threaded into the cavity formed by the adjacent end portions of the other section.
The buckle of the present invention is distinctive over the prior art, including the above named patent, by providing two buckle parts in which the end of one part defines a slot-like entryway to a recess permitting free passage of a latch bar side of a loop formed on the adjacent end portion of the other part when disposed at a predetermined angle.